Tangled
by insertcleverandwittytitlehere
Summary: Daphne Greengrass, fifth year Slytherin, has a thing for a certain Gryffindor. When he finally does ask her out, she's amazed just how tangled up she is with him... and he with her.


**A/N:** Beater 2 of the Chudley Cannons checking in for Round 13 of the QLFC.

 **Word Count Before Author's Note:** 2,586

 **Prompts:** 8\. hairbrush, 14. "I drink to make other people more interesting" - Ernest Hemingway

 **I do not own Harry Potter. J. K. is the queen.**

* * *

Daphne fought with her hairbrush. Usually after a nice, hot shower, it went easily through her hair, but her alarm hadn't gone off on time, and she had to skip the shower and go straight to the mirror. Luckily, she hadn't put any make-up on her face the day before, so she at least looked fresh.

She tried to remain inconspicuous as Pansy Parkinson—another fifth year Slytherin—walked through the bathroom door. However, the hairbrush was embedded in her dark brown locks, and Daphne needed the help.

"Pansy, be a dear and get this out," she motioned to the clump of tangled hair webbing around her brush.

"Geez, Greengrass. Can't leave you alone for one minute, can we?" But Pansy's chubby sausage fingers were in Daphne's hair soon. The blonde girl pulled and yanked until the brush was free.

"Thanks," Daphne muttered, the roots of her hair throbbing. Pansy, instead of listening, was hiking up her already-short skirt to reveal a flask fastened to her curvy thigh. She pulled it open and drank.

"What are you doing?"

"I wanted a moment to myself in the loo; Millicent won't leave me alone, and I'm simply _dying_ listening to her ramble on and on about her stupid cat," Pansy took a swig out of the flask. "It's firewhiskey. I drink to make other people more interesting."

She stashed the flask back under her skirt. Daphne rolled her eyes.

"Charming," Daphne turned back to her own reflection, prodding her skin. She felt like she would never look decent enough for what her day held.

"You look frazzled, long-legs. What's up?"

Long-legs. The nickname Pansy had given Daphne on their first day, because she was so tall compared to everyone else. Faking a smile, Daphne said, "Got a date, but my alarm went off late, so I'm scrambling here."

"A date?!" Oh, no. She looked far too excited. Daphne gently placed her hairbrush on the counter and used the mirror as a guard between her and the real Pansy. She told the other girl's reflection. "Yep. And I'm not saying with who, so you can wipe that smirky grin off your face, thank you very much."

The effect was instantaneous, and Daphne had to keep herself from giggling. Pansy folded her arms over her bulging breasts. "Be that way, Greengrass. Next time I'll just rip out your hair instead."

"You know, you are a positively perfect resemblance of Umbridge," Daphne's voice was sickeningly sweet, "did anyone ever tell you?"

Pansy turned on her heel, marching straight out of the girls' bathroom. Daphne sighed, looking into her own brown eyes staring back. She didn't like being cruel to people. She didn't much enjoy when others failed at things like most of Slytherin house. She often wished she had been sorted into somewhere else, like Ravenclaw and even Gryffindor. Never Hufflepuff, though. She could handle being in the most hated house so long as she knew she wasn't mediocre.

"Hmph," she scoffed at her reflection. "I am so very Slytherin sometimes."

After dislodging the knotted hair from her hairbrush, Daphne used her wand to charm the rest of her bedhead away. At home, she quite enjoyed doing things the Muggle way; after all, her father _was_ a Muggle. She even _wanted_ to keep to the traditional way of things and only use magic when necessary, like her witch mum. But this date was important to her.

It was during her third year when Daphne really started noticing Fred Weasley. She still couldn't pinpoint how her crush started, just that it did.

The night Sirius Black got into the castle and attacked the portrait guarding Gryffindor Tower, the entire school was hoarded into the Great Hall, where they spent the night. Daphne wasn't too scared, although her younger sister Astoria was terrified. She was a first year at the time, and Daphne hadn't been the best of siblings to her.

Astoria was sorted into Ravenclaw, which made Daphne uneasy since no one in Slytherin had yet to find out that she was half-blood. And she wanted to keep it that way. Having an ickle first year Ravenclaw on her tail at all times was not something Daphne wanted, so she told Astoria that while at school, they didn't know each other. It was merely happenstance that they shared a last name.

But that night, Astoria didn't want to keep up the charade. She had walked straight over to Daphne and said she was scared. Daphne, who could see Pansy and Millicent Bulstrode watching them, told Astoria off and stormed back over to Slytherin's corner.

Then Daphne felt immensely guilty. So, once Pansy and Millicent were asleep and the Head Boy was stalking some noisy Hufflepuffs, Daphne crawled over to her sister's side.

"I'm so, so sorry," she whispered. Astoria, who was always understanding, turned away from Daphne. "Truly, Astoria. I know it's scary, and I'm such a horrid sister. I wish that blood-status didn't matter to those stupid girls. I wish it didn't matter to me."

"Why does it?" Astoria whispered. "I never cared. Why do you?"

Daphne sighed. She felt tears in her eyes. "You will never understand how the Slytherins treat purebloods who marry Muggles the way I do. And if they knew that that's what mum did, I'll never hear the end."

"But, you still have me, Daphie," Daphne cringed at that horrible nickname, but let it slip. "And I'd never abandon you."

"Yes, but you have an entire house of people who understand. You have your friends. I have a house filled with backstabbers. I have a whole school who wouldn't dare speak to me because of the color of my stupid tie," a small hiccup escaped her lips. Daphne didn't know she had actually started crying.

Astoria turned, sat up, and hugged her.

It was then, buried in her sister's black hair, that Daphne saw him. Fred Weasley, staring at her with such an intensity that it scared her. He looked concerned for one thing, and maybe, just a little bit like he regretted something. Daphne knew he had heard her, so, instead of continuing to stare back, she closed her eyes and held her sister, whispering, "I'll stay with you tonight. I do love you, silly."

Now, back in her fifth year, things were better. Well, things between herself and her sister were better. The school—the school was under the beady eyes of Dolores Umbridge. Even the Slytherins were starting to hate her strict rules and demonic means of punishment.

 _Most_ of the Slytherins, anyways, but that was the least of Daphne's concerns. She applied a thin layer of lip gloss on and headed out the door.

Fred was waiting for her.

* * *

After that Hogwarts sleepover, Fred started saying hi to her in the halls. Daphne thought it strange, and she couldn't help being embarrassed each and every time, since she knew it was an extension of his own guilt. He probably never thought about the individuals of Slytherin, just the whole, and he wanted to make up for it.

Then it turned into Fred walking with her to class. Fred carrying a book if she looked like she had too many. He even asked her to the Yule Ball, but she had to decline since Blaise Zabini asked her first.

"Ah, all the good ones taken," he had winked.

They would talk in the hall on the ways to class. They would meet up once in a while to work on homework in the library. They would talk quietly about this charm, that potion. Sometimes it was family, but mostly it was school. They just seemed to gravitate to each other regardless of their first "meeting." Daphne even helped Fred and his twin brother George with one of their pranks once.

Despite looking pretty much identical, Daphne found herself admiring Fred more. Maybe it was because he was the more outgoing twin, or maybe it was because of that night, but Fred was gorgeous to her. Shaggy red hair, mint-blue eyes, tall, Quidditch player. Older. Crooked grin. Their moments were small, but her crush grew.

Then, two days earlier, he asked her out.

"Daphne, my pet, it seems as though you are dateless this weekend," he slid in step with her on her way to Herbology.

"Dateless?" Daphne grinned. "I didn't know I needed a date."

Fred stopped, feigning shock. "Did not know? Merlin's sake, girl. This weekend is in fact the very weekend you require a date."

"Hmm," Daphne kept walking. Over her shoulder she egged him on. "Whatever will I do, with only a few days left?"

Fred grabbed her arm, spun her around, and said, much more seriously, "I would be happy to amend this heinous error."

"On one condition," Daphne smiled. "You are required to talk like a normal person."

"Deal," he flashed his crooked grin.

Professor Sprout could have been divulging the secret to eternal life and Daphne would have never known.

* * *

Fred was waiting by a statue of a tall wizard with hair that reminded Daphne of spring coils. He smiled, "What took so long?"

"Long? Am I that late?" Daphne made to check her pocket watch, but Fred stopped her.

"Just teasing."

A short silence lingered around them. Then Daphne spoke, "So, what are we doing for our—date?"

"I was thinking a jaunty walk up to the owlery first." Fred wouldn't meet her eyes. "Then, perhaps, we could go—around the school… and…"

Daphne waited, but Fred didn't finish. He looked a bit pink around the ears as his hand rose to scratch the back of his neck. "I really don't have a clue. I just wanted to be alone with you for once."

"The owlery _would_ be good, except it's a Saturday, and I reckon most students are sending letters home... however," Daphne continued when she saw Fred looked crestfallen, "I hear that there's this spot down by the lake where a few people go when they want some privacy."

"Lead the way," he held out his arm for her to link through. It was a bit strange at first, walking like that, but luckily for Daphne, she was tall. Long-legs. Had she earned the same genes as her sister, Daphne would have looked similar to a dwarf next to Fred.

She found the spot near the lake, secluded by willow trees, where they sat on the ground staring at the mist rising from the water.

"I'm just glad the rain's finally lifted," Fred said sinking down beside her.

"Mhmm," she murmured. "Too bad the sun hasn't got the memo yet. I'd like to see it one last time before the winter comes marching in."

For a while they sat there in a comfortable silence. Daphne tried to think of other topics besides the weather to discuss, but the only ideas that came to mind were Fred's twin and Umbridge. Could she be any more boring?

"I'm really glad you agreed to this," Fred said.

"Why?"

"Because I've been dying to ask you out, Daphne, my dear."

"Okay…" Daphne smiled. She liked that Fred liked to joke around and be what her dad would call a "regular class-clown," but this topic had been floating through her head for a few days, and she wanted the serious answer. "But why? I mean, I'm not upset that you asked. I'm definitely happy about that, but we barely get to speak, don't we? So why me instead of your other seventh year friends? Why me—a Slytherin?"

"Slytherin or not, I think you're beautiful," he said quietly. "And I like the conversations we have had, and I think you are captivating, you know? Like, in the morning, when you're sitting at the Slytherin table, and that Parkinson girl keeps shrieking about this and that, you just look so amused. It's funny, watching you brush her off to read a book or work on homework."

She finally looked over at him and was pleasantly surprised to see he was staring right at her.

"You deserve better than that lot."

"Was your goal to get me to blush, or is that just a happy coincidence?" Daphne nudged Fred with her shoulder.

He laughed, getting them both up to their feet. Pulling out his wand, he cast a spell on both of them, " _Impervius,"_ and took off full speed into the lake.

"Race ya!" he yelled. Daphne had only a moment to understand what was happening before her legs carried her over to the water. It was brutally cold, but her clothes weren't getting wet.

They splashed around for a bit, laughing. Eventually, she had to get out because of the cold, and Fred spent the next few minutes holding her while she got warm again. Daphne, meanwhile, was finishing off one of her favorite childhood memories.

"So my mum was using a levitating charm to keep Astoria from falling out of the tree, when we heard this really loud crash. I turned around to see my dad, who was out at the shops, lying on the ground. He passed out from the shock of seeing his daughter floating in midair." Fred laughed heartily. "He had to go to the Muggle hospital to get stitches in the back of his head."

"My brother Charlie did something like that once. George and I were up in a tree, and he told us to jump so that he could practice saving us as we fell to the ground. Mum was not happy when all three of us stumbled back to the Burrow with broken bones."

"It must be nice having so many siblings. Sometimes I wish Astoria and I had one more person between us to act as moderator. We get into screaming matches _all_ the time."

"That's what siblings are for, after all," he looked down at her. Daphne was unaware of just how tight his arms were around her: protective and warming. The sky was getting dark, and they had been talking for hours while in each other's arms.

"Yes," she said. "I suppose so."

Daphne lifted her chin ever so slightly. Fred lowered his, a serious look spreading on his freckled face. Not too often had seriousness crossed his eyes, but Daphne knew that in this instant, she was glad it was there.

Slowly, he leaned in. Daphne stretched up to him, and then their lips were gently touching. It wasn't a long kiss. In fact it was over before it really began, but to Daphne, it was everything she wanted in that moment.

They both let out a nervous giggle, before Daphne threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again. This time, Fred placed his hands in her hair, and she felt wild.

As they broke apart—perhaps hours later—Fred laughed.

"What?" Daphne asked, a bit of alarm to her voice.

"Don't worry," he kissed her nose. "I quite enjoyed kissing you, and quite frankly, I'd like to continue, however, it seems as though my hands are stuck in your hair."

Daphne tried to move, but true to what Fred said, his fingers were entwined in her locks.

"You know, I've been having a bit of a problem with that today," she began untangling his hands the best that she could. "I'm glad it's you this time, though, and not my silly, old hairbrush."

They walked back to the castle after that, the sun setting behind them as Fred placed a soft peck on her cheek.


End file.
